Tuesday 15th – It's stopped raining so on with the hacking out. Make good progress while Barbara continues with the painting & cleaning. We're expecting the fridge & dishwasher today and at about 2:15 get a phone call from the shop asking for directions, in French! The luck must be with us today as Barbara is chatting with Iggy's mum, Madame Guilbert, and manages to ask her to give directions to the driver on the other end of the mobile phone. Ten minutes later the van pulls up and the driver asks where the fridge is to be installed. When he sees the steps he shakes his head and says 2 of us will not be able to get it up the steps & gets his mobile out and calls the shop for more help. The shop is about 20 minutes away and instead of sitting in his van waiting for help the driver gets his tool kit out and fits the filter and plumbing that is required by the fridge. Help arrives and 10 minutes later we're having a demonstration of the fridges features and lots of apologies for the confusion over the delivery. As the van pulls away another one pulls up and Iggy's dad gets out with another man who turns out to be his son. He's come to have a look at the field and says he'll be more than happy to cut it but will have to wait until early June & when the weather is a little drier. He speaks a little English and asks if we're happy with the deal. We're delighted. He explains that the cattle in the next field to ours are his and that he is off to Bordeaux tomorrow to sell the calves to Auchan, France's equivalent of Tesco. We had planned to have calves liver for supper tonight but I think on this occasion I'll go for the vegetarian option. Called at the garage to check out if there had been any developments on the Landrover lightweight. The owner is going to sell it and they'll know what price he wants next week. Watch this space.
Wednesday 16th – It's raining again! Had planned to finish off the hacking out on the back wall but electric drills and water don't mix so it's off to VDR today, instead of our planned trip tomorrow, for some bits & pieces. Turns out it was the right decision because, guess what, Thursday (Accession day) is a bank holiday and the shops will be closed. We called in to the store where we'd ordered the cooker from to see if they had an ETA on the 'new' one. They're full of apologies over the confusion last Friday and have obviously pulled out all the stops because the cooker has arrived and we arrange for it to be delivered on Friday afternoon. It's still raining after lunch and we spend the afternoon at Gilly's painting and caulking.
Thursday 17th – It's still bloody raining & I'm beginning to think it's the curse of Manchester. Spent the morning putting new light fittings up, fitting door handles, getting doors to fit & touching up paint work. Gilly dropped in with yet another friend who had arrived from the UK on Monday She's off back home tomorrow and the weather is forecast to change for the better. Not the best of timing for her. No sarni's tooday just a very civilised lunch back at Najac. Another afternoon painting at Gilly's and a bit of a surprise when we arrived at the house given that it's ascension day . Looks like Mazerolles could be putting a challenge in to Lourdes with it's latest inhabitant.
!Friday 18th – Busy day with the cooker due for delivery and a phone call first thing to say the dishwasher has arrived and will also be delivered this PM. Called in to chase M. Regourd and explained that we move in next Tuesday and could do with him putting in a few hours before then. Promised to be there Monday! Spent the morning trying to fit the glass on the shower cabinet without success and think we'll have to make a slight modification known as a shower curtain and some silicon. Also assembled the dining chairs we'd picked up at Ikea. I wonder if in a couple of hundred years there'll still be around and people will be buying them at brocantes and antique fairs? Judging by some of the stuff you see it wouldn't surprise me. As was to be expected the cooker & dishwasher arrived at the same time and in a spirit of comeradery amongst white goods delivery men they helped each other up the steps with their respective loads. We get a quick lesson on how the cooker works and to illustrate a particular feature, I'm sure it was purely coincidental, he picks the timings for cooking roast beef! With all the major appliances and kitchen units now in place we just await Ikea's text to inform us the kitchen sink has arrived. Cleaned the floors down in preparation for varnishing and applied a second coat to the kitchen area.
Saturday 19th – Called in to see how the floor was drying and meet S & G to give them some chaux. They're going to have a go a touching up some of the lime-wash on their walls so it'll be interesting to see the results as we need to do a little patching up near the stove. Off in to VDR to the brocante that was being held outside the Hotel de Ville. Most things seem quite expensive but after a little haggling and shrugging of shoulders we manage to pick up some irons for the stove and a pottery hook for the WC. Finish off the varnishing then back early to get washed and changed as we're off to a fund raising night to raise money for the local school's trip to Réunion.
Sunday 20th – What a good time we had last night. The meal was a long way from the traditional French fare we've been having (apart from the odd McDonalds) since we arrived and was all based on recipes from Réunion which is an overseas French department in the Indian ocean. Click here for a link to the Wikipedia page on Réunion. We were entertained by some of the local school pupils dancing in costume and a number of parents dancing to a local jazz-funk band. All very different and once again we're made very welcome and come away thinking we really must make a concerted effort to learn the language. Easy day today as we wait for the varnish to dry so it's off to St. Antonin-Noble-Val market and pop in to S & G's on the way back and help to seal up a gap with some expanding foam. Only one full day to go before the furniture arrives so a full day getting organised tomorrow.
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